How You Can Use 'Powerpuff Yourself' To Bond With Your Kids

There are days when parenting feels like a pretty tough gig, if we're all prepared to be honest. I know I've had many days when I felt like my kids were these slightly malevolent strangers walking around my house and eating all of my favorite foods. Sometimes I wasn't sure how to connect with them, how to make them feel like they were really "mine." That was until I figured out the secret to surviving as a parent: embracing the silliness. Here's how to use the popular Powerpuff Yourself to bond with your kids and rediscover all of the best parts of your own childhood through theirs.

We all remember the Powerpuff Girls, I hope. Half adorable, half tough as nails, all colorful and crazed and action-packed. The Cartoon Network launched a reboot of the classic cartoon on Monday and '90s kids are justifiably losing their minds over it. Powerpuff Girls represented something different for many of us. Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup were being raised by their scientist dad, Professor Utonium, in Townsville. The girls had to deal with loads of regular issues like sibling rivalry, bed wetting, personal hygiene, etc. But they were also being called upon to save the town on a regular basis with their awesome super powers.

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The humor was light, the pop cultural references satisfying enough for parents to sit through, and the girls were never perfect, but we loved them anyways. And they were schooling us on a regular basis in the best way possible. All of their lessons felt like a happy accident (remember one of their arch villains "Femme Fatale," anyone? The bank robber feminist who only stole Susan B. Anthony coins? How awesome was that?).

Well now the Powerpuff Girls are back and with them comes a fantastic opportunity as a parent: the opportunity to just hang out and goof off with the little ones in your life. The opportunity to be silly, to remember what it was like to watch cartoons with a big bowl of cereal in your lap and the day stretched out before you like a perfect blank page. Do you remember how that felt? Do you want to remember how that felt?

I happen to believe that silliness is a powerful parenting tool. The truth is, your kids want to really know you. Not just the person you are now; the bill-paying, working, responsible parent who cooks them dinner and makes sure they're brushing their teeth. They want to know the you that you used to be, too. The person who watched the Powerpuff Girls and maybe ate Frosted Flakes like they were going out of style. The person who thought rolling down a hill was a good way to spend an afternoon. The person who made dandelion bracelets with their friends.

So trust me — take the silliness seriously. Take the time to do nothing with your kids. To hang out with them, to introduce them to the you who once was. Because the next time you are having one of those Epic Fail kind of parenting days... it won't feel like the end of the world. You will have shared something important, something that will last.

Powerpuffing yourself — or any other hilarious thing the Internet invents just for fun — will help you create funny, irreplaceable memories.